- [Voiceover] We're here with Sean Logan, the Director of College
Counseling at Phillips Academy. Sean did admissions at
Williams, Occidental, Harvard, and Stanford, as well
as working with several community-based organizations. Sean, thanks so much for being here today. - [Sean] Happy to be here. Thanks. - [Voiceover] Sean, we wanna
get started with one of the first question that students often face in the college admissions process, and that is, what are vocational programs versus two-year programs
versus four-year programs. What are they and what do they offer? Let's go ahead and get started
with vocational programs. What are they all about? - [Sean] Vocational schools tend to teach specialized trades, things
like plumbing, heating, potentially automotive
skills and so forth. So students who are looking at this area coming out of high school tend
to be wanting to focus in, have a real specific interest,
wanna get that training, the training may be anywhere between six months and potentially two years. Then they come out with
very applicable skills in a particular area. - [Voiceover] Great. Sean, how does the
vocational program differ from a two-year or
four-year college degree? - [Sean] So, in two-year
and four-year degrees, a two-year degree is an Associates Degree. That's generally what you get when you finish a two-year program. When you finish a four-year program, you typically get a Bachelor of Arts or a Bachelor of Science, so a BS or a BA. In a two-year program, the
sort of strengths to that tend to be, they give students
a little bit of flexibility. You can go part-time,
you can go full-time. It allows students who may need to work or may just not be sure
that higher education is the direction they wanna go in, it lets them sort of take
some courses without making a bigger financial commitment right away. So it has that. You can get more specialized degrees. You can come out ready
to be a Dental Hygienist or go into Law Enforcement,
different things like that or you can take more of a broader program and maybe want to then transfer
on to a four-year school. So you can take the two years that you got say you were studying Biology or something you were
really interested in, and then apply that
towards a four-year degree. So you're already two years into it and you have two years left at a school that has a four-year degree. - [Voiceover] Great, so then
why would students choose, for instance, to go to a
four-year degree directly rather than starting
with a two-year degree? - [Sean] It's gonna give
you a bit more, I think, flexibility and probably more options. Usually, they have a broader curriculum at these kinds of schools. It allows you to have
other options as well, so things like Arts, Music, Theater, athletic opportunities that are there. Potentially, broad opportunities as well. And, this four-year degree can be in a variety of different areas and those areas that will give you ... That degree after four years will give you more flexibility. Most employers now look
at a four-year degree as the starting point
in their hiring process. - [Voiceover] Great. Are there specific
careers you can think of where a four-year degree is required? - [Sean] The beauty of a four-year degree is, it's gonna really, I think, prepare you in a lot of different areas. Things like graduate
programs in medical school, law school, business school,
those sorts of things. It also allows you to
go into a whole host, probably the spectrum of
jobs that are out there, a four-year degree is sort
of that starting point to get into those different areas. If it's in technology,
if it's in education, if it's law, if it's in
medicine, if it's in whatever, that's sort of the degree
that's really gonna give you that starting point. - [Voiceover] Great. So it's sounds like, if I
understand you correctly, the four-year degree really gives you a lot of flexibility after you finished, whereas the two-year
degree is really flexible, in part, while you're
doing the degree itself. - [Sean] It is and it's gonna
be a little bit more limiting. There won't be as many job opportunities. There's lot of job opportunities that are very much suited for an AA degree, but there's gonna definitely a limit in terms of all these other opportunities that are really looking
for a four-year degree. - [Voiceover] Great. Sean, thank you so much. - [Sean] Thanks.